Is anybody watching this fiasco unfold? It “occurs” to me as a hostage situation. Far right factions in the Republican Party have decided to hold the economy hostage to push through their agenda, and no one seems to be willing to take them to task or talk some sense to them. It now looks like they’ll get their way and saddle to poorest and neediest in our nation with mending the damage that the Bush era machine set in motion. Not only are there to be no “new taxes”, we’re extending the tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans and cutting social programs to pay for it. The only point of contention now is how the Republicans can avoid cutting defense spending as deeply as the bipartisan “supercommittee” has suggested while at the same time reducing the deficit by an amount equal to the debt we’ve already incurred (and now have to pay for) without raising revenue. It looks to me that the greed has moved from Wall Street to Capitol Street by proxy.
They would have us believe that their party was not responsible for taking a nation with a balanced budget and no federal deficit and turning it into a nation with historic budget deficit. When the greed of Wall Street and the deeply red budget caught up with us, we were headed toward a depression. They would have you to believe that TARP and stimulus were ineffective in preventing anything, but my impression is that things could have been much worse if the leadership that put us in this situation was still at the helm.
I don’t think there’s any evidence that the two party system still works. Neither party has been able to muster the combination of leadership and insight necessary to right the ship. The far right sees no reason that we need to pay taxes for the services they receive, and the left has been unable to nudge them to a middle ground. Paying for what we’ve spent by collecting revenue and cutting spending would be compromise. Compromise seems to be a word that has taken on a derogatory connotation as unpalatable to our generation as the word “thrifty”. Economy and good management are no longer seen as ideals worth our attention, and besides, the word “thrifty” keeps bad company. It’s one of the principles in the Scout Law, and they all seem to have fallen into disfavor. A scout is:
Trustworthy
Loyal
Helpful
Friendly
Courteous
Kind
Obedient
Cheerful
Thrifty
Brave
Clean
and Reverent
We’re intent on pressing two simultaneous wars on the Asian continent when we can’t keep our workforce employed. One would have thought we would have learned our lesson by now on attempting a prolonged military engagement in Asia with no clear definition of success or a clearly understood plan on handing over the responsibility and getting out. We think we’re bringing the fight to the terrorists responsible for 9-11? That’s not true in Iraq, and I’m not so sure about Afghanistan either. Afghanistan has behaving pretty much the same way for a thousand years. Killing them only gives them something to fight for and makes them stronger. A better approach to Afghanistan might be free MTV and McDonalds.
But then again, that hasn’t worked in our inner cities. Tensions still run high along racial, economic and ideological divides, and neither Lady Gaga or Big Macs seem to have brought the violence to a close.
